Chapter 89: Universal Progress

  “YES! Who is your daddy now?” Marcus grinned at his screen and leaned back with satisfaction. “Player SwiftJustice69 wishes for a rematch. Accept, Decline” appeared on the screen and Marcus flinched. He had improved a lot in Go over the last weeks and just a moment ago he had his first victory against a strong player. But Marcus knew he was not yet good enough to beat somebody like SwiftJustice69 with a high probability. He declined the offer and wrote a short excuse in the chat. Marcus took his win and ran for the hills. Or in this case into the kitchen to get some reward chocolate bars.

  Human players were nothing compared to Azaa and Marcus could see many misplays and tactical errors by now, which did not mean he was able to beat everybody. Objectively speaking he had reached the “high level” in online Go, maybe the top 20% of amateur players. Not that this would make any difference against Azaa and her divine level of play. Still, she would be able to see his improvements when they met in a few days. Marcus stepped out of the kitchen and saw Candis and Kou training. After they had returned from the raid, Candis had started to work on Stasis, a potentially life saving ability. She had not been very optimistic in her ability to learn but Kou supported her from the start. His class was the closest to hers in type, and his insight in mental techniques and visualization was very helpful to Candis. Marcus silently walked around the villa to not disturb the two and looked for a nice place to rest in the sun.

  Honestly speaking things had been going amazingly since they got back from the raid. Lord Cromwell, Alistair to his brothers in arms, had been very happy with their performance and they agreed to an informal alliance between his group and the clan. This was a great opportunity and Marcus had to thank Grace again for her contribution. Overall he felt Grace should get some kind of official position in the clan to reflect her achievements. He would talk with her later, Marcus decided.

  The Portal Stone got auctioned, sold in 39 seconds for 134 million dollar, and went to a large US based clan “Immortal Hearts”. The money got equally shared and now they all were multimillionaires. He did not know yet what to do with the money, but it was maybe time to look into some simple enchanted equipment pieces.

  Marcus let the sun warm his skin and enjoyed the peaceful life. Janette was with Cherry for the moment, which made the estate instantly less noisy. Of course he missed her and he kind of regretted not going with her to meet Cherry. But he had to take care of a few things too, not only playing Go. Just a few days ago he played a role in delivering the Undead arm to the UN, all secret agent style. He had called his father and explained what they found and his father said this needed to be kept secret until it was safe in the hand of the UN. Thus, Marcus handed over the arm to a group of armed men and women in the middle of the night. It was strangely exciting and he was looking forward to what the scientists could learn from it.

  The other very important thing he did was finding a new gift for Azaa and this time Candis helped him. With Janette gone for the moment, Candis offered her opinion on the matter and she found a wonderful gift for Azaa. A modern music box she had bought some time ago out of whim, in case she ever needed a nice present. It consisted of a small box with something like a transparent balloon on top. When the box played its tune, colors and forms appear inside the balloon in form of holograms. The song inside the box was something from Chopin, so he was told, a classical piece Candis promised. It sounded to him rather romantic and emotional but “Spring Waltz” was the title, and he really had no plan when it came to classical music. Marcus hoped Azaa was interested in classical music.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  He spent more than an hour in the warm sun, until his phone vibrated and Carmen was calling him. “I could kiss you right now!” She sounded extremely happy and Marcus tried find out why. “Why? I just got the news about the underground ruins your raid explored. If only half of what I read is true than this is going to keep us busy for years! Especially the potential for organic remains, Marcus! DNA! Imagine what we could learn!” She was over the moon and Marcus was happy that he had a small part in preserving this discovery. Over the next hour he gave her a detailed report about the ruins and stressed several times how dangerous it was. Carmen promised him that if they would get the funds for a large expedition they would make sure to take a large and capable security force with them. When he ended the call, he got up and looked for people to decide what they would make for lunch. Life was good, actually so good Marcus was worried something bad might happen, because he was not sure if he was allowed to be this happy.

  But nothing bad happened and his day of departure to meet Azaa arrived. Marcus said goodbye to his clan and was on his way. His friends saw him off and after his taxi had vanished around the next corner Candis send a message with her phone.

  “He is gone, with the gift.” Seconds later Janette replied. “Did he suspect anything?” and Candis answered “No. I changed the labels as discussed.” a minute later a thumbs up emoji came back from Janette. Candis smiled and felt at least 50 years younger. Now, she hoped Azaa would like “Mariage d'Amour” and things would go well for Marcus.

  The unsuspecting Marcus was on the way to the ginghi, his planes were on time, his trains not so much but have you every used the train in England? He went through the portals with his special permission from the UN and in the early hours he walked over the fields surrounding Mihr Jhel, waving to ginghi farmers and enjoying the fresh air after a night rain. He put his belongings into the embassy and walked over to the study. Marcus had to calm himself and not to walk too fast, he really was looking forward to talk with Azaa and tell her about the raid and hear her opinions.

  He knocked at the door of the study but got no answer. Given what happened last time he hesitated to just move in and instead knocked again. More nothing and Marcus contemplated what to do now when a young woman in the uniform of the Preservers came around the corner, all exited.

  The woman used hands and feet to explain to Marcus he should wait in the study and that Azaa would come later. Marcus moved into the room and put his gift down. Without Azaa around the place felt strangely empty and alien. He looked around and was about to sit down on his usual spot when he saw what Azaa was working on currently. Next to a large blackboard stood a special contraption and in it was a Pearl of Wisdom. Marcus walked to the Pearl and realized the contraption allowed the user to easily rotate the sphere in any direction. He looked at the blackboard and found rows of symbols, which also showed up on the surface of the Pearl. She was trying to open it, he realized. He looked at the symbol combination she had tried and also the logic behind her choices. It was hard to follow her reasoning, genius and all, but he had nothing better to do and he was interested to see if he could (with enough time) figure out what she was thinking.

  Fools! Fools! FOOLS! Azaa was walking quickly through the halls of the large Preserver building. Of all days they had to schedule such an important meeting when Marcus would come to visit her. She had to be there, had to endure them talking and thinking so very slowly while she knew Marcus was waiting in her study. Azaa stormed down the last hallway and stopped in front of the door. She calmed herself and walked into her study.

  Marcus stood with his back to the door and in front of her blackboard. With one look she could tell that he had continued her test system. Several new lines of symbols had been added and she was happy to see he had managed to follow her reasoning. He did not turn when she walked in and Azaa could hear music from the device on his head. She slowly walked closer keeping her eyes on his broad back and watched him work. He turned the Eshfa Sphere and tried a new combination, it would not be correct, she knew. Azaa had already discovered the correct combination but had not yet the time to open the Sphere and inspect the content, and what a fortuitous circumstance it was. For several minutes she watched him work until a piece of chalk fell down, he picked it up and saw her standing behind him. He smiled and so did she.